G'day Eloy
Thank you for your help - it was spot on! The mdl_course_sections table was corrupt and couldn't be read.
For any one else with similar problems here is how (with Eloy's help) I fixed it.
I downloaded and installed mySQL's Control Center which made it easy to work with my database (it was similar to MS SQL's admin package which I was familiar with).
I deleted the corrupt table (I couldn't edit it) and created a new one with the same name.
I opened myql.sql from the lib/db folder into an editing package (I used Programmers Notepad). This gave me the structure of the deleted table.
I manually entered the fields for the table and saved.
Voila! Moodle was back in action.
My backups now worked (although I had to restore twice to get all of the content).
Support for Moodle is VERY impressive. Thanks again.